We have been able to get SMBD to work under the TCPIP Aux Server environment - multiple server processes - automatically - and access from multiple clients simultaneously. So now the next challenge is to reduce the number of shared images so we can then have SMBD and NMBD run with minimal impact on a server - reduce or minimize sysgen parameter changes.

Then the testing and debugging will continue more evenly as we move forward.

Need to find, isolate and fix a bug a day for a while. Not too much issue finding. The isolation is a bit more of a challenge as well as getting a fix in a day.

Also need to start developing the new VMS specific ACL code.

Also utilities need to checked out and tested.

No attempt will be made to get the Python extension working - at least not on first blush.

And I need to start working on a paper about this port for the OpenVMS Boot Camp being held in late September in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Now this has all been in "single" process mode. But it is definite progress!

Currently we are working on getting this version of Samba (4.3.6) to running under the HPE TCPIP Auxilury Server (this is similar to the inetd environment of Linux/Unix). Various issues have to be addressed, the invocation under the AUX server does not use stdin as its base socket, but relies upon the server to create a socket with a special "protocol family" type - TCPIP$C_AUXS. There are also issues with the code as it has come to us in that it does not like doing the DEBUG logging in this mode until after a certain point - which we still have to isolate, document and resolve.

Have been able to get the code to a point where I can navigate the folders in a share and also open and display a file. Yes, progress.

And then I tried to create a file... Oops! Well, not really surprising that code path has not been excised yet and many issued need to be checked. Looks like an issue with some of the talloc code possibly - that was the comment in the log file. So will dive into that soon.

Nice to see the progress and get the reward of seeing the navigation and the display.

Well, the fact that they do not fall over and crash immediately is more like the truth. I have successfully compiled and linked an initial incantation of Samba 4.3.6 on OpenVMS I64 8.4.

Now the fun stuff has started! Looking through the reams of log files - thank you Samba developers for DEBUG - and finding errors. And then fixing those errors and going to the next iteration of the port. Also as I work through this then I also will continue to turn on more and more options along the way.

It is still very early in this port. There are thousands of files; some will never need to be looked at initially, thank goodness, as they will just compile and run. Others have already been taking time and finding bugs in the OpenVMS CRTL - nothing new there. Thankfully there have been some workarounds already available - except for a tweak here and an tweak there.

One major point that needs to be considered - until there is a fix for CRTL bug dealing with AF_UNIX sockets and bind() - is the "collision" of routines in a couple routines that deal with IO on VMS to support unix/linux style IO - the issue of open(), close(), select(), poll(), bind(), socket() and such that need to play with all devices - terminals, sockets (of all types), pipes, etc. I am hoping to avoid this with having isolated calls, but it may need to be unified - and then of course torn apart to some extent when/if the CRTL fix is released. But of course the issue of supporting older versions of VMS plays there as well.

Anyway, off to a side project while Samba builds in the latest fixes I have implemented.